Your email address is the key to the professional networking platform LinkedIn. Not only do you use it to log in, but it is also visible to everyone who visits your profile. It’s important to put forward a professional and reputable email address for use with LinkedIn. If you need to change your primary email address, the process is fortunately simple.
Whether you have a new email address to use for your profile or you have decided to switch email addresses with another one you use regularly, changing your primary email takes only a few steps. This article will walk you through the steps to change your primary email address on LinkedIn.
How to Change Your Primary Email Address
Your primary email address is where you receive all LinkedIn notifications. It’s important to make your primary email address the one you check most frequently.
On a desktop:
- Click the “Me” icon – the picture of you – at the top of your homepage.
- Select “Settings & Privacy.”
- Choose “Sign in & Security” from the left menu.
- Under the “Account access” menu, click on “Email addresses.”
- Click “Make primary” next to the email address you want to change to your primary address.
If you only have one email address added, you will first have to add another address and then designate it as your primary. Instructions to add an email address are in the section below.
On a mobile device:
- Tap your profile photo.
- Select “Settings.”
- Choose “Sign in & security.”
- Under the “Account access” menu, tap “Email addresses.”
- Set up your primary email.
If you have not added that email address yet, you will have to go through the steps first to add the email address. See those instructions in the following section.
How to Add an Email Address to LinkedIn
Before you can make an email address primary, you must first add it to your account.
On a desktop:
- Click the “Me” icon on your homepage.
- Choose “Settings & Privacy.”
- On the left bar menu, click “Sign in & Security.”
- Click “Email addresses” in the “Account access” menu.
- Select “Add email address.”
- Enter your new email address and verify your LinkedIn password.
- Click “Submit.”
Before you can make the email primary, you will need to log in to your email and verify it. After validating your email, it will be an option in your settings to make this address your primary LinkedIn email address.
On a mobile device:
- Tap your profile picture.
- Choose “Sign in & security.”
- In the “Account access” menu, tap “Email addresses.”
- Tap “Add email address.”
- Enter your new email address and confirm the action with your LinkedIn password.
- Tap “Submit.”
- Log in to your email to validate this as an authentic email address.
This address will now show up as an option for a primary email address in your LinkedIn email list.
Benefits of Adding Primary and Secondary Email Addresses to LinkedIn
There are several reasons why it’s recommended to have both primary and secondary email addresses connected to your LinkedIn.
- It offers a backup email to prevent you from being locked out of your LinkedIn account if you lose access to your primary account.
- It provides more than one way to contact you in urgent situations, such as security risks.
- LinkedIn can use email connections to better personalize your services.
- It will prevent the accidental creation of extra LinkedIn profiles from accepting notifications from an email address not associated with your LinkedIn account.
Having at least two email addresses associated with your account can be extremely helpful and save some headaches. You can add even more than two if you’d like.
How to Remove an Email Account From LinkedIn
Occasionally it’s time to clean out old email addresses to which you no longer use or have access. Deleting emails from your account is as simple as adding them. Note that LinkedIn won’t function without a primary email address. So, you cannot remove your primary email address until you have made a different email address your primary.
On a desktop:
- Click the “Me” icon.
- Choose the “Settings & Privacy” option in the drop-down menu.
- Select “Sign in & security” from the menus on the left.
- Click the change arrow next to email addresses.
- Next to the email address you’d like to remove, click “Remove.”
On the mobile app:
- Tap your profile picture to bring up the homepage.
- Choose the “Settings” gear icon at the top right of the screen.
- Tap “Sign in & security.”
- Select “Email addresses.”
- Next to the address you want to remove, tap “Remove” to delete.
Remember that if you don’t see the option to delete an address, it’s probably set as your primary. You will have to add and change the primary designation to another address before you can remove that one.
LinkedIn Email Tips and Tricks
There are a few things to keep in mind to help make your use of LinkedIn email addresses go smoothly.
- If someone sends a LinkedIn invite to an email address you don’t have associated with your profile, and you accept it, it will automatically create another LinkedIn profile for you. Be sure to list all of your email addresses on your LinkedIn profile to avoid this.
- In the event that you lose access to your primary email, try signing in to LinkedIn with a secondary email associated with your account.
FAQs
Why won’t LinkedIn accept the email address I’m trying to enter?
Because your primary email address is of such importance, LinkedIn will not accept an address unless it believes it to be a verified, authentic address. You will also have to confirm it by accessing the email account to verify it’s real.
Do I have to use my primary email address to log in to LinkedIn?
You can use either your primary address or an additional email address you have added to your account. Many users have both a professional and a personal email address linked to their accounts.
Which email address should I use as my primary email?
LinkedIn experts suggest using your professional email address if you are using LinkedIn to build your business network or to promote your work. If you want to use LinkedIn for research but don’t wish to share your professional information, using a personal email address may be best for you.
What if I lose access to my primary email account?
If you lose access to your primary LinkedIn email account, try logging in with another account associated with your profile. Any of the email addresses should work. If not, follow the “Reset password” link and indicate that you don’t have access to your email. LinkedIn will try to verify your identity in another way.
LinkedIn Primary Email Address
LinkedIn makes it very straightforward to change your primary email address. Any time you change jobs and have a new email address, changing this contact in your profile takes only a few minutes. You can also alternate between professional and personal email as your main point of contact as it suits your needs. Adding additional email addresses to your account makes this process even faster.
Have you needed to change your primary email account on LinkedIn? Leave us a comment below and tell us about your experience.
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